The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

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It is Time Again to SupportYour Skeptics Society!

THE SKEPTICS SOCIETY is a non-profit, member-supported 501(c)(3) organization whose goal is to promote skeptical thinking (i.e. thinking like a scientist). Your generous support helps us continue our educational outreach through venues such as:

Media interviews on national TV, radio, and in national paper(opinion editorials, commentaries, and reviews)

University and college lectures

Michael Shermer’s monthly column in Scientific American

Skepticblog (with top skeptical writing talent), and

Our free, weekly email newsletter, eSkeptic.

We’re Taking Skepticism into the Classroom!

This fall semester (2011) Michael Shermer has been teaching a course for Freshmen at Chapman University entitled “Skepticism 101: How to Think like a Scientist (Without Being a Geek).” Students are instructed to write a 700-word OpEd essay, deliver an 18-minute TED talk, and conduct an experiment testing a paranormal claim. They are reading many classic skeptical books and each week Shermer lectures on a classic skeptical topic such as: science and pseudoscience • science and religion • science and morality • evolution and creationism • the Baloney Detection Kit • how science works • Big Foot and Loch Ness, aliens and UFOs, Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis, etc.

Your Donations Will Help Put Skepticism into Schools & Teach Students How to Think, Not Just What to Think

Shermer’s “Skepticism 101” course is a pilot course for the development of a Skeptical Studies Curriculum that can be used in any classroom anywhere in the world, from middle school to high schools, and community colleges to universities. We are building a free, comprehensive online resource center dedicated to Skeptical Studies that will allow anyone, anywhere, anytime, to access for free any and all materials they might need to teach such a class of their own design, including:

Syllabi, reading lists, articles

Essays, lectures and notes, PowerPoint/Keynote presentations

Videos, YouTube links, educational and entertaining in-class demonstrations on how to teach skeptical principles and the psychology behind them with hands-on experiences

Other teaching tools that visually illustrate key points of skeptical thinking on how science works and how thinking goes wrong.

We have already begun collecting hundreds of submissions from teachers around the world as result of our initial invitation to submit skeptical course syllabi. With your help we can put Skepticism 101 resources on the web—a free, easy access location for educators wanting to introduce a particular topic to a class or to develop an entire course. To that end please take a moment to donate and support this worthy project.

Which two cryptids are likely inspired by a real animal? Download the free PDFand find out!

Free Crytpid Cards (for considering a donation)

As our thank you to you for your generous support, we are offering a free download of 5 Cryptid Cards created by Junior Skeptic Editor Daniel Loxton. Loxton won the prestigious Lane Anderson Award for the best Canadian science book of the year for young readers: Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be, a work that generated enormous media coverage, including the fact that the book was rejected by American publishers for being too controversial because it deals with the “E” word! As the Globe and Mail noted:

Daniel Loxton, an illustrator and writer, created a children’s book so outrageous, so outlandish, so controversial no American publisher dared touch it. It does not depict nudity. It does not contain curse words. It does not include blasphemy. The love scenes, such as they are, involve males with females. It does include a straightforward explanation for the complexity of the natural world through a simple scientific theory. The book wound up being published by Canadian-owned Kids Can Press, which also expected objections from creationists. So far, the book, an illustrated primer written for readers in Grades 3 to 7, has generated more prize nominations than controversy.

For contributions that fit a donation amount below,you are eligible to receive the associated gift(s).

PATRON—$5000 or more

A private dinner with our Executive Director Michael Shermer at a restaurant of your choice, plus the three premium gifts listed below.

BENEFACTOR—$1,000 or more

Five of the “Greatest Hits” lectures from our Caltech lecture series on DVD: Mr. Deity & Friends, Michio Kaku’s The Physics of the Future, Sean Carroll’s From Particles to People, Leonard Mlodinow’s The Grand Design, and Sam Harris’ The Moral Landscape, plus the two premium gifts below.

An autographed copy of Michael Shermer’s new book, The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies: How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.

What We Did With Your Donations This Past Year

Michael Shermer’s new book, The Believing Brain, made it to the New York Times bestseller list thanks to the national book tour (that included an appearance on the Colbert Report). On tour, Shermer met with local skeptics groups in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Denver, San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York.

The Skeptics Society hosted a Science Symposium at Caltech with over 700 people in attendance, including hundreds of high school and college students from all over the United States, and even from around the world.

The Skeptics Society hosted three geology tours featuring Donald Prothero, including a remarkable cruise through the inside passage of Alaska for spectacular glacier viewing. We have more geology tours planned for 2012.

Questions?

If you would like to speak with someone directly, please contact our donations coordinator by email at donations@skeptic.com or by phone at 1-626-794-3119.

The Top Ten Strangest Beliefs

Who believes them? Why? How can you tell if they’re true?

What is a conspiracy theory, why do people believe in them, and why do they tend to proliferate? Why does belief in one conspiracy correlate to belief in others? What are the triggers of belief, and how does group identity factor into it? How can one tell the difference between a true conspiracy and a false one?

The Science Behind Why People See Ghosts

Do you know someone who has had a mind altering experience? If so, you know how compelling they can be. They are one of the foundations of widespread belief in the paranormal. But as skeptics are well aware, accepting them as reality can be dangerous…